Protecting your data inside the Home of the Future

(techno music) – The home of the future
will be more secure than the house of the past, because it’s protected by
cutting edge technology. The front door has a smart
lock, there are cameras around the perimeter that can
give us a live video feed, and our front doorbell can alert us when someone’s approaching. All this tech is meant to
instill absolute confidence that I’m as secure as I
can be from any intruders. But tucked away quietly in
a corner of my home office is this, a simple unassuming printer. And in the home of the
future, it has the potential to be an open window to my digital self. (techno music) – All these connected devices are somewhat like windows
you’re adding to this house. All of them are an opening
that needs to be secured, an opening into the network
in this case, into your data. The general security of your network is only as strong as its weakest link. – This is Nadir Izrael, co-founder and CTO of Armis Security. His job is to assess and
secure computer systems. All the devices we see in this
home are in fact computers. These are not just devices, they run code, they do everything your laptop can do, except they lack the inherent security that you can put on your laptop. – So I’m used to having my computer have anti-virus software, that’s common but the
other devices, the printer? – Right, these used to
be dumb simple devices, but now they are basically computers. That printer actually runs
a standard operating system. A very old one too. And that’s very usual these days. What that means? It can itself contract viruses, malware, so it’s not just a printer. – Or a thermostat, or a refrigerator, or a ceiling fan, or any number of devices that populate the internet of things. As we learned in our last
episode of connecting this home, internet of things devices
are still in their infancy. As a result, products
are designed more often with connectivity first
and security second. Okay, so you might be asking, should I be nervous
that my smart light bulb could be used to hack
into my bank account? Actually, it’s not likely. – It’s rarely the case where someone would
target you specifically and your devices. What’s more common is that
you’re basically a target of a wide scale campaign
that’s opportunistic. – He’s right. Most cyber attacks aren’t
targeted at specific people. Since they rarely make much
money off any single account. Hackers are trying to take over thousands of accounts at a time. So the best course of action is making yourself less of a
target compared to other users. And it’s not that difficult. Even basic security measures can put you ahead of many others. And in most cases using services like two factor authentication would put you in the top
five percent of accounts. – It’s basically around
changing passwords, keeping software up to date, closing down connections you don’t use, using password protection where you can, everything that you can do to kind of lower your
profile, secure things. For example when you have a car alarm, it doesn’t prevent a very motivated person from coming and taking your car. It just makes that care less
of a target of opportunity. – There is however, another source of valuable data in the home. Its occupants. (techno music) In our home of the future, I can control almost every
device with just my voice alone. Thanks to our Alexa and a slew
of Alexa enabled products. But these abilities are
also able to be tracked, cataloged, and stored. Building out a profile of
my behaviors inside my home. And for tech’s biggest companies, that data on my home life
is extremely valuable. – An analogy could be the wild west. You know when it was
all about the homestead. Grabbing the land. Having the square footage. Where the real value was what
do you own under that land. We’re advancing into all of
this new digital interfaces while not considering the
mining right to the real value which really is the data. – This is Anne Boysen. A futurist who runs a
strategic consulting business here in Texas. And she doesn’t see this
business model changing. – The whole incentive is to share data, and I don’t see that ending anytime soon. We’re going to have to at
some level opt in to that. – What a concept. Privacy as a commodity. – Right, exactly. Your home life becomes commodified, because you can use
your data as a currency. You can use it to offset the costs that you always would have had and that becomes part
of the business model. Take Vizio, a TV manufacturer who made a name for themselves
offering quality TV’s at aggressively competitive prices. Part of the reason they were
able to offer their product at such a reduced rate was
that they were collecting and selling their users data, and in 2017 Vizio had to pay
2.2 million dollars in fines because of illegal data collection on more than 11 million TV’s. Despite those fines and all the bad press, Vizio TV’s are still popular, and are still collecting
this kind of data. Only now consumers have
to choose to opt in. Instead of being signed up automatically. But it feels like a stretch that customers would
read the terms of service before making a purchase. – If you’re struggling to get by, you don’t have the luxury
to think about your privacy, and then you become much
more easily a target for someone who will be willing to trade their personal data
for that kind of convenience. – I don’t have a personal
assistant in my house. I don’t have Alexa, or
Echo, or Google Home, and the reason is that I
don’t wanna be recorded 24/7 and I understand maybe the processing has to happen somewhere else, but that’s something that
as a consumer I object to. And that’s why I don’t have that device. – Companies are already
starting to hear the new demands and the fears from their consumers. Particularly in the
aftermath of the scandal with Facebook and Cambridge Analytica, started a new awareness
where people started to make more demands of
the companies around them. – We didn’t take a broad enough
view of our responsibility, and that was a big mistake,
and it was my mistake, and I’m sorry. – Well we’ve already
recently seen in the EU, the sweeping new privacy
legislation called the GDPR which already now have huge consequences for technology companies
that are collecting data. I think we might be seeing some similar types of legislation. Perhaps not as pervasive, so we’re starting to see already that the tech companies
are starting to adopt a much more holistic view
where it’s not only about what can we do technology wise, but what do people actually
want in their homes. – While governments, companies, and public opinion try to create order in this wild west of data collection, the best thing we can do as consumers and users of these devices is
be aware of the trade offs. Because if we’re gonna
fully secure our home, we need to first decide
what’s worth protecting. Thank you so much for watching. Now you’ve seen how we’re
securing our home of the future, but what devices would you use, and how would you protect them. Let us know in the comments below and we’ll see you next week with more.

We didn't actually get to see any security measures so no, we didn't get to see how you secured zour home of the future… nontheless you've raised some interesting issues which I hope will turn up again and again when you promote the devices that are affected by those issues. This is why it's problematic to do a paid promotion while trying to do journalism…

When it comes to home network there are a few things:First of all, one of the top antivirus companies bitdefender has created the box product that not only secures those devices like computers phones and tablets, but it scans all network activity from all devices connected to the internet and protects them from malware. Really good product for this kind of situation.

First step is to use only Open Source devices, with Open Source software and hardware. Then if the need exists to use a remote service and can't be self hosted, use only a completely transparent service, that tells you everything it's recording and why, and to whom it gives access to that data and why.

"home of the future is safer" ya no power goes out all your locks pop open doors windows anything electronic fails or depending on your system every thing perma locks till the power comes back on and you locked in your own house your little blue tooth lock can get hacked from where ever and boom you lose control then people hack your cameras and watch you i think new electronics are amazing but people are getting why to dependent on not having to do anything and thinking old stuff is out of date and insecure when from everything i have seen and experienced it is the complete opposite no one is going to hack into my dead bolt and open it remotely from BC not to say its unpickable but id rather an old fashion dead bolt than an electric blue tooth one that can fail if the power goes out or some one hacks it i know lots of them have battiers but so did my security system it still just died as soon as the power went out and then the company came and said it was fine so ya new stuff tends to fail A LOT and im very untrusting of it

No actual follow up solutions at the end? Really? Like simply even changing the default DNS on your router to filter malicious websites. Applying a newish 3M film on your windows to make them impossible to break & energy efficiency. I applaud the concern for security in the episode, but not enough solutions.

this is a refreshingly good video. Going into this I thought it would be glorifying smart homes but I'm really glad they're showing all the risks, vulnerabilities, and privacy violations that come with this. Well done by the Verge

Nice to see. But isn't there a flaw in the logic here? If hackers approach the mass then there should be no reason for security on each gadget itself. But still theres's a ton of virus attacks on PCs. So each small gadget should therefore be the risk of a hack?Or simply start running these things on Apple OS X instead and reduce the risks. : )

Whatever you think about data as business, there should be a transfer of who owns your data, you yourself that is. And by so you should be able to choose complete privacy or if you want to share. And if you share YOU yourself should be the benefit of the revenue this data renders.

I love the argument, I wont buy a smart home device because I don't want someone listening to me. Do you own a cellphone? Do you have a smart speaker? A smart TV? Hell, a normal phone? There is a high likelihood that you can be listened in on.

people getting bitchy about data collection, when the giants have done it from the start. nowadays y'all complain about facebook, but remember everytime you clicked "sign in through facebook", you hand them your data on a silver plate.

I have a few home assistants around my home, but I don't have anything to hid so even if they are listening I'm not bothered. But most of the time they stay disconnect. I find my self using the smart controls on our walls more than I will ask a smart attestant to control something for me.

To many people are willing to exchange security for convenience and they are making it easier for someone to break into there homes! We are going to see a evolution of theives that use laptops to help them break in and look at what devices you have or what smart appliances and or electronics you may have! All without stepping foot into a home allowing them to break in at a later date if they feel that house is a good target or not! Companies and utilities will be able to pry into your life more than ever and this tech is not your friend!

I personally go the route of a seperate wifi network for sensors, and stuff that I'm not to worried about. A wired network for critcal stuff. With neither touching the internet. Then a normal home network for my computers and not smart home stuff.